Is it safe to mix hydrogen peroxide and acetone?
I'm a little leary about mixing chemicals I'm not that familiar with, could this cause an advese chemical reaction similar to mixing ammonia and bleach?
please help
Answer:
woo... you are right to be leary about mixing chemicals, mixing ammonia and bleach is not even quarter (or less) as bad as mixing acetone and hydrogen peroxide. Mixing acetone and hydrogen peroxide will give you acetone peroxide, which is an organic peroxide and a primary high explosive. It's even worse if the concentration of peroxide is high, the reaction will be very vigorous. Save your HANDS!
yes, do'nt do it. you could lose a finger or 10
The acetone and hydrogen peroxide will react to form triacetonetriperoxide, which is a rather unstable explosive. This "TATP" got a bit a publicity a couple years ago, in the U.K. Underground bombings, actually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/acetone_per...
While it is not going to do any harm in solution, you're asking for trouble if you mix it up and forget about any unused portion. On drying out, it could spontaneously explode. When I was working in a research laboratory, this is one of the things we had to guard "newbies" against.
A better solution (pardon the pun) is hydrogen peroxide + ethyl alcohol. A peroxide is also formed, but one that doesn't decompose explosively. It is still a powerful oxidant and should work its way under any residual nail polish (unlike straight hydrogen peroxide).
You could continue to use peroxide + acetone, but dilute the unused portion with water and discard it. Don't let it sit around.
(Just thought I'd add: the proportions we used in the laboratory gave about 3% peroxide solution. If you buy 10% peroxide from the pharmacy, that means dilute with about 2 volumes of the alcohol or acetone.)
Yes, acetone peroxide might form, although the Wikipedia article says that this can only be done by catalyzing the reaction in acidic conditions.
You may want to experiment with some safe cleaners like bicarbonate of soda and an old toothbrush and see if that will remove the stains. Try some safe compounds from different "chemical families" and see what the stain will respond to or dissolve in: carboxyl ions (bicarbonate of soda), ionic (salt), alkanes (machine oil) and if you manage to get the stain out then wash hands thoroughly with soap.
Acetone peroxide (triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, TCAP) is an organic peroxide and a primary high explosive. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder with a distinctive acrid smell.
It is highly susceptible to heat, friction, and shock. For its instability, it has been called the "Mother of Satan".[1] It has perhaps sprung into notoriety due to its alleged use in the July 2005 London bombings and has also been reported as the explosive favored by suspects arrested on August 10, 2006 who allegedly intended to destroy aeroplanes flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.[2]
Acetone peroxide was discovered in 1895 by Richard Wolffenstein.[3] He was the first chemist who used inorganic acids as a catalyst. He was also the first researcher who received a patent for using the peroxide as an explosive compound. In 1900 Bayer and Villiger described in some articles in the same journal the first synthesis of the dimer and used acids for the synthesis of both peroxides too. Information about it including the relative proportions of monomer, dimer, and trimer is also available an article of Milas and Golubović. [4] Other sources include crystal structure and 3d analysis in "The Chemistry of Peroxides" edited by Saul Patai (pp. 396–7), as well as the "Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry" by Vogel.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: